Read posts about

My tax business is very small. It’s just me, my receptionist, and the occasional seasonal employee that I hire to help during tax season.

Plus, it’s not like I can offer my tax preparation services online anyway. Do I really need a website?

- This is not what you should rely on for your business to be found.

Fair enough. If you had asked me this in 1995, I would have probably told you: you make some valid points. But before I answer your question, let’s flashback to the last product or service you purchased. Did you happen to conduct some research online before making a decision?

Think about this. If 81% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase, and 87% of American adults use the internet, isn’t it safe to assume that having an online presence will benefit your business?

As entrepreneurs, we all have to keep pace, stay informed, and adjust accordingly in order to be successful. Anyhow, you know where I’m heading with this. The answer is yes, if you have a business you need to have a website. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Now, let’s look at some additional reasons to ensure you follow the right path when building an online strategy for your small business.

First of all, if your first inclination is to think building a website will blow away your budget, you can relax. I’m not suggesting that you hire an expensive tech team and spend thousands of dollars building an extravagant website. The point here is that you should, at the very least, have an online presence. You want potential customers, business partners, and perhaps even future employees to quickly and easily be able to find out basic information about your business and the services you offer.

That said, it’s important to remember that your site is the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential client. Therefore, having a professional-looking website with easy to find, relevant information about your business, should be your absolute highest priority while working on this project. If your site looks like it was designed and written by your 8 year-old nephew, chances are that prospective client is not going to trust you or anyone in your business to prepare their taxes.

Lucky for you, a professional looking website does not go hand-in-hand with how much money you spend on it. This is the beauty of the online world. You don’t have to spend a fortune to make your small tax preparation business reflect the appearance and professionalism of a large franchise or corporation. So you can look at your website as a great tool to level the playing field between you and the big boys.

Speaking of competitors, another very good reason why you should have a website, without one, potential customers searching for tax preparation services in your town will end up going to your competitors that do have a website.

At this point, if you still believe that your business cannot benefit from having a website, then you might as well call the other tax professionals in your town and let them know you are not interested in new business derived from online sources.

For those of you who are convinced and ready but not sure where to start, stay tuned for my next post where we’ll discuss insightful tips and pass on best practices that we use here at Refundo to establish a successful online presence.